1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for protecting data for operating or controlling functions of an operating system, process, equipment, and/or a machine, which is stored in a switching arrangement that consists of electronic components and/or a processor, wherein the switching arrangement is mounted on a circuit board inside a housing or is embedded in a plastic.
2. Description of the Related Art
In every organization, not only the internet but in general all handling of electronic data and information, which represents an important part of business secrets, requires secure storage and transmission of data. In this regard, various risk management strategies are based, for example, on the use of cryptographic methods in order to be able to guarantee the protection, security, and availability of data for controlling operating systems, equipment, and/or machines and to be able to enter and retrieve critical technical, business, or legal results in rapid succession.
In the past, application developers had little interest in the incorporation of security functions in their products, because there was a lack of demand, and the incorporation of security functions would have appreciably increased the price of the products.
An important security measure is cryptography, which engineers incorporate in newly developed products and which reliably protects the products with respect to use and misuse. Cryptographic methods or encryption by characters and numbers or well-defined algorithms are also used in data banks, which control the protection and traffic of confidential information. Personal data also needs to be protected, which is certainly not the least important aspect of self-protection.
To protect secrets from misuse or unauthorized access, repeatedly acting protective measures are introduced in computer operating systems. An attack on encrypted data is often made by a decryption operation, in which the attacker attempts, for example, to determine the code or break the algorithm. If an attack is successful, then the attacker can use the compromised and still valid code and can cause great damage without being detected.
One countermeasure to this type of procedure is an electromechanical housing lock, which, when the housing is opened, causes the operating system of a device or at least the security-relevant data of the electronic components of a switching arrangement to be immediately erased. The lock consists, for example, of an electromechanical switch which, on the one hand, is mounted on a printed circuit board, circuit card, or the like and, on the other hand, is connected with the housing. However, this security principle is unsuitable if an attack on the operating data is planned which does not involve opening a housing that comprises several housing sections, for example, by drilling an access hole into the housing. Therefore, more extensive security precautions are demanded for the protection of electronically stored operating data.
Protective sensors were previously wound around the outside of a housing. This has the disadvantage that the sensors have connections, which are led out from the inside and thus convey high-frequency signals. Filter measures are necessary, but these cannot totally eliminate the security risk.
WO 99/48055 describes, among other things, a “tamper-resistant postal security device” with a housing for protecting data carriers that contain electronic components for storing and generating print data for printed postal indicia.